Vehicles already exist that are designed to move beneath the tube plate of such apparatuses in order to engage the ends of the tube and insert inspection tools into the tubes, e.g. eddy current probes, or else tools for performing actions in the tubes such as cleaning, plugging, or other actions.
Prior vehicles are designed to move stepwise in X and Y directions or in rotation in order to engage the tubes fitted in said tube plate.
Such vehicles are specially adapted to move stepwise over specifically determined types of mesh.
After working in this field, the Applicant has already implemented a vehicle for stepwise displacement to position a tool selectively to engage any one of the tubes in a bundle of tubes received in a tube plate, regardless of the geometry or the layout of the tubes over said plate.
The object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle for inspecting and maintaining tubes in a tube bundle apparatus and capable, under remote control, of moving quickly underneath the tube plate of said apparatus in a non-stepwise manner, regardless of the geometry of the layout of the tubes in the plate, such a vehicle being adapted to bring several different types of tool successively into engagement with the tubes.